Hand rakes for gathering various materials such as leaves, hay, straw, and the like have been used for centuries with little change in construction.Basically, such rakes consist of a long wooden handle which is grasped by the user at one end, and a bar with depending teeth on it at the other end. In order to gain additional penetration to smooth the soil, some rakes have a heavier bar with short stiff tines. While other rakes, of somewhat different usefulness, have a lighter construction with long flexible fingers.
Even though hand rakes have long remained unchanged, they still exhibit the same handling problems. For example, while the short, stiff-tined rakes enable embedded and soggy leaves to be dislodged, considerable care must be taken not to damage or tear up the grass lawn on which the leaves often rest. Furthermore, the short tines have a tendency to pierce and collect the leaves so that in a relatively brief period the rake is clogged.
For these reasons, rakes with long flexible fingers are usually preferred for raking up lawn clippings and leaves. This is so because their longer tines deflect to reduce grass tearing and leaf clogging. On the other hand, it is often necessary to exert considerable downward force on such rakes in order to dislodge the embedded leaves and to rake them into a pile.
Another major problem with both of these types of rakes is that the user must bend down and push the gathered material against the rake with one hand while grasping the handle in the other in order to lift the material for placement in a suitable container. Alternately, the user must drop the rake in order to gather and to transport the piled material with two hands. In either case, an excessive amount of energy is consumed by having to repetitiously bend down to pick up the material, and the user finishes his task tired and dirty.